A rolling mill must generally be able to manufacture a wide variety of metallic semi-finished products which differ, for example, in the metal to be processed, in the joining properties of steel to be processed and the spatial dimensions, in particular the thickness.
In this respect it is necessary for operation of a rolling mill to be able to be reset in such a way that strips with very different properties can be fabricated in as rapid a succession as possible so that a high equipment throughput rate is achieved. This is necessary both for hot rolling and for cold rolling. The prior art discloses methods which permit such resetting of the properties of produced strips by means of a rolling mill.
Japanese Laid-Open Application JP 2001293510 A2 discloses a method for controlling a flying change in thickness of a continuously operating hot strip train. A method is disclosed with which the automatic change in thickness can be determined per rolling stand.
Japanese Laid-Open Application JP 59191509 A2 discloses a method for changing material dimensions during the passage of rolling stock in a continuously operating mill train. In this context, manipulated variables are calculated from an initial state and position tracking for the section of the strip whose thickness is to be changed is carried out. Accordingly, a rolling gap and a rolling speed for the respective rolling mill are set. In particular there is provision for no reduction in thickness to take place any more at the last rolling stand.